1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cellular telephone systems, and, in particular, to tunneling voice over the Internet Protocol in a cellular telephone system.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the Internet and the associated Internet Protocol (IP) gaining popularity with customers, it is now possible to use IP via the Internet (or an intranet) to deliver wireless voice services. However, four issues remain to be resolved.
The first issue is the choice of a fixed IP address scheme or a dynamic IP address scheme for IP-enabled handsets. The second issue is how to support non-IP-enabled handsets in Voice over IP (VoIP) applications. The third issue is how to effectively manage and route IP packets. The fourth issue is how to communicate with other IP or non-IP networks effectively.
The present invention focuses on the second issue and provides an effective solution for supporting non-IP-enabled handsets in tunneling VoIP through a cellular network. This solution efficiently manages, arranges and controls IP resources, thereby improving system performance.
To overcome the limitations in the prior art described above, and to overcome other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, the present invention discloses a method for tunneling voice over the Internet Protocol (IP) in a cellular network. A Mobile Identification Number (MIN) of a non-IP-enabled handset is mapped to the IP address of a component of a cellular network in communication with that handset. A sub-index is assigned to the handset by the component, wherein the sub-index acts as an extension to the IP Address of the component, so that a non-IP-enabled handset can be correctly identified within the cellular network.